Individual Details

From records found at Devon, England in the Petre Family records, apparently Vincent "Meggs" was an Innkeeper and moved from Chardstock to Axminster in 1617 to become the landlord of the Angel/Angle Inn.

Devon Heritage Centre
Manonial Records
123M/E/37
AXMINSTER MANOR survey, with other manors, 1625
Haccombe Fee, Axminster
Vincent Meggs alias Love, Emma his wife and John Megg, son of the said Vincent and Emma hold for the term of their lives by copy dated 15th October James [1617] one tenement in the town of Axminster known by the name of the sign of the Angel with curtilage and the Backside thereunto belonging with appurtenances containing by estimation half an acre. Yielding annual rent of 3s 6d. Not heriotable. Fie #70.

There is no record in America showing that his wife survived to come here. "Em" is listed as mother of his children in their baptisms. The first record of Vincent is in 1641 at Weymouth, MA. Vincent and his sons made plans to go with Rev. Samuel Newman's company to Rehoboth in 1643. Each person desiring to do so was required to give the value of his estates - John Meigs listed his at 120#'s. It is not certain that they moved to Rehoboth since if they did not move to the new community and fence their land, they forfieted their allotted land. John Meigs is one of 18 names appearing on the forfeiture list. He was assigned a lot on 9 Jun 1645. Instead, Vincent and sons appear to have moved about 1644 to New Haven, CT. At about age 70, Vincent moved to East Guilford, CT with his son John; this was about 1653. Vincent Meigs' will is dated 2 Sep 1658 and was probated that December. He is said to have been the first to be buried in Hammonassett Graveyard. There is no gravestone there now.

NOTE: Descendants of Vincent Meigs, who came from Dorsetshire, England, to America, about 1635, by Henry B. Meigs, 1901, published by John S. Bridges & Co, Baltimore. This book now digitized on the Internet perpetuates the myth that Vincent Meigs was married to a Churchill. The will of Emma Stronge's father names her husband as Vincent Meigs and the mother of his children given in their baptisms is "Em". That would seem to be enough evidence that Vincent Meigs was never married to a Churchill, but this is one more attempt to prove relationship to someone of "importance" that was so prevalent in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

THE MEIGS FAMIILY [CONTRIBUTED TO ANCESTRY.COM BY "huffmanmj"]:
VINCENT MEIGS, born in Devonshire, England, about 1583 ; married, in 1608, _____. Came to New England in 1639 settled first in Massachusetts (Weymouth, probably), removed to Hartford and from there to New Haven, in 1644 ; moved to Guilford in 1647, and subsequently moved to Hammonassett, East Guilford, now Madison, in 1653 ; died there in December, 1658, and was the first person buried [Rocky's New Haven Co., p. 203] in East Guilford. The house of Sergeant Daniel Meigs, built in 1750, stands upon the original home lot of Vincent Meigs.
His two [three] sons, John and Mark, came with him to New England.
SECOND GENERATION
John Meigs, son of Vincent, Weymouth, Mass., 1639 [?], Hartford, New Haven, 1644, owned "Cutler's corner" in New Haven, fronting on Church- street one hundred and thirty-nine feet, and on Chapel street two hundred and thirty-five feet. William Jeanes owned it, by allotment, from 1639 to 1648; John Meggs, from 1648 to 1658, by deed; Town, from 1658, by cession. John Meigs, or Meggs, as he spelled his name then, acquired his title by purchase and conveyance, which is on record as follows : "Wm Jeanes passeth over to John Meggs his house and house lot, lying at the corner over against the house lot of John Budd and the highway." John Meggs took the oath of fidelity in New Haven in 1644, and was admitted freeman 1644.
He was a tanner by trade, active in business and had a large estate; he is also mentioned in early records as having "books, one was a Greek and Latin Dictionary," showing that he was a literary man.
When the trouble with Connecticut arose he took an active part on the side of the Connecticut usurpation, and accepted the appointment of constable for Guilford from the Connecticut authorities in defiance of the New Haven jurisdiction.
John Meigs settled in Guilford 1647; was admitted a planter on his buying a hundred-pound allotment at Hammonassett on its settlement, March 3, 1653-4: made freeman 1657.
Mr. John Meigs was one of the twelve men selected as patentees of the Charter of Guilford ; his name occurs in the Charter four times. He was Representative at Hartford, 1647.
May 14, 1663, John Meigs was chosen Constable over those submitting to Connecticut Colony at Guilford. [History of Guilford (Smith) pp. 19, 24, 25, 28, 50, 78, 79]. In 1668 he removed to Killingworth, where he died January 4, 1671, leaving a very large estate.
One of the most interesting incidents of his life is recorded in many histories and romances of New England. [Palfrey's New England, ii, pp. 490, 502. Atwater's New Haven, p. 426. Hollister's Conn., i, p. 239. Col. Histo. Soc., xxviii, p. 325. The Judges Cave, Romance of New Haven Colony, 1661, by Margaret Sidney, Chap. x, and the Regicides, F. H. Cogswell].
By a wild ride on horseback "the night of May 12, 1661, John Meiggs of Guilford" succeeded in reaching New Haven in time to notify Rev. John Davenport that agents of the King were at Guilford on their way to New Haven to seize the regicides Whalley and Goffe* then in hiding at Mr. Davenport's. The regicides, warned in time, hurried away to another of their mysterious hiding places, and John Meigs was considered to have saved their lives ; he is also said to have carried food to their "hiding place."

Birth	Abt 1580	Chardstock, Devon, England
Death	1 Dec 1658	Guilford, New Haven County, Connecticut
Marriage		Emma Stronge

Spouse	Emma Stronge ( - )
Child	Vincent MEIGS ( - )
Child	Mary MEIGS ( - )
Child	JOHN MEIGS ( - 1671)
Child	Mark MEIGS ( - )